The present invention generally relates to data processing. The invention relates more specifically to automatic remote development, printing, and forwarding of photographic prints based on digital images that are formed in a digital camera.
People around the world enjoy photography and distributing photographic prints to their friends, relatives, and neighbors. Photography is also important in a variety of commercial industries. Recently, a new generation of cameras has become available that form images using digital technology. Personal electronic handheld digital cameras are now commercially available from Nikon, Canon, and other manufacturers.
In a personal electronic handheld digital camera, light reflected from a subject passes through a lens and strikes a digitizing device, such as a charge-coupled device (CCD) detector. The CCD detector, and associated circuitry, converts light rays into digital electronic signals that form an image of the subject. One or more digital images are stored in a solid-state memory device within the camera or in a removable memory device such as a flash memory card. The camera contains a microprocessor that executes the image formation and storage operations, under control of a computer program embodied in firmware such as read-only memory.
A display integral to the camera, such as a liquid-crystal display (LCD), provides a viewfinder function by showing images formed by the lens and CCD prior to storage. The display also shows status information about various camera settings.
After a picture-taking session, a user of the camera connects the camera to a workstation or personal computer. Alternatively, the user removes the removable storage device that contains stored images from the camera, and connects the removable storage device to the personal computer. The personal computer executes a program that can read the stored images, from either the camera or the removable storage device, and display the images on a display of the personal computer. Under software control, the personal computer can also send one or more images to a printer, store the images as files on the personal computer, and carry out other functions.
One problem of this approach is that a user of the digital camera is required to use the personal computer to obtain a reasonable display of the digital images. Generally, personal computers have displays that are far larger and have far better resolution and image quality than the small LCD displays typically found on digital handheld cameras. As a result, using a personal computer is the only practical way to obtain a useful displayed image of a digital image taken with a digital camera.
Another disadvantage of the prior approach is that a personal computer or its equivalent is required to print a tangible copy of a digital image taken with a digital camera; the camera cannot produce a printed copy itself. Further, most consumers do not own or cannot afford a high-resolution color printer, such as a laser or ink jet printer, that is capable of producing a high-quality printed image of a digital photo. Consumer-grade computer printers can produce a good-quality grayscale image or black-and-white image, but high-resolution color printers are expensive and not common in the home computer environment.
As an alternative, a user of a digital camera can take the removable storage device to a commercial image printing service. Conventional photo developers are beginning to offer such services. The user pays a fee to the service provider, and the service provider prints a hard-copy print of an image, generally using a high-resolution color laser printer and ordinary paper. However, this involves delay and fees that are undesirable. In particular, in this alternative, when a user of the camera wishes to send a tangible copy of an image to a relative, friend, or neighbor, the user is required to wait for the service provider to print the image and deliver it to the user, before the user can send the print to the desired person. There is a need to expedite the image transport process.
A further problem with the prior approaches is that the user of the camera is required to use a personal computer to send a digital image made with the camera to a distant business, friend, relative or neighbor. Personal computers are not ubiquitous on a worldwide basis or even in large cities, outside highly industrialized nations such as the United States. Thus, there are millions of people who enjoy taking pictures but do not have access to, cannot afford, or do not want to use a personal computer in order to send a picture to someone else. For these people, there is an acute need to simplify and expedite the process of sending pictures from themselves to someone else.
Another problem with these approaches is that the user or owner of the digital camera cannot prepare a photographic print from a digital image, on standard photographic paper of the type used in optical and chemical photographic processes. Making photographic prints from digital images is desirable for several reasons. For example, in general, because photographic paper is more color-sensitive and has extremely fine grain, a photographic print will have greater image fidelity and color quality than an image printed on a laser printer. In addition, laser printed or ink jet images may be unsuitable for reproduction in newspapers, magazines and other media. Furthermore, because color laser printing is a new technology and the long-term durability of inkjet inks and papers is unknown, images printed on conventional plain paper have an uncertain life span. In contrast, photographic prints are durable and are known to last many years, and are therefore desirable for archival applications.
Currently, an owner of a digital camera who desires to make photographic prints must take the camera, or a diskette containing images taken by the camera, to a commercial photo developer or camera shop. The diskette is given to the developer, or the images are transferred from the camera to a storage device associated with the developer. The owner of the digital camera then generally leaves the premises while the photographic prints are made, because the photo printing process takes time and may involve slow chemical processing. Thus, the owner of the camera is requested to return at a later time to pick up and pay for the prints. If the prints are to be given to another person or business entity, the owner of the camera must separately deliver the prints to that individual or entity. The foregoing process takes time and requires multiple manual steps and an associated expenditure of energy and resources.
Accordingly, there is an acute need in this field for a more automatic way to transfer digital images to a developer or other entity that can prepare photographic prints. There is also a need for a more automatic way to deliver the completed photographic prints to the intended recipient without requiring multiple visits or trips by the camera owner to the developer.
According to one aspect of the invention, a method of preparing a photographic print is provided. A digital image is formed in a digital camera. One or more address images are retrieved. The digital image and the one or more address images are communicated from the digital camera over one or more networks to a service provider that is remote from the digital camera and coupled to one of the networks. A photographic print of the digital image is printed on a photographic printer associated with the service provider. The photographic print is delivered from the service provider to one or more receiving parties specified by the one or more address images.
According to another aspect of the invention, a method is provided for preparing a photographic print. A digital image is formed using a digital camera. Address information is stored in the digital camera in association with the image. The address information specifies one or more recipients of the digital image and defines characteristics of the photographic print. Both the digital image and the address information are communicated over a packet-switched data network to a service provider that is logically remote from the digital camera and communicatively coupled to the data network. A photographic print is printed from the digital image based on the characteristics. Finally, the photographic print is delivered from the service provider to the one or more recipients specified by the address information.
According to another aspect of the invention a digital camera is provided that is configured to form a digital image and retrieve one or more address images. The digital camera is further configured to communicate the digital image and the one or more address images from the digital camera over one or more networks to a service provider that is remote from the digital camera and coupled to one of the networks.